In an effort to help emerging artists reach wider audiences, the Sundance Institute has partnered with online video outlets including Hulu, Amazon, Netflix, iTunes, YouTube and SundanceNow.
The deals are not exclusive to any one platform, so films can be made available simultaneously on competing sites.
Films will be packaged under the Sundance name as part of its recently launched Artist Services Initiative. Marketing guidance will also be provided to filmmakers through the new Web-based program.
New Video will serve as the aggregation partner for online distribution, taking a small cut of the revenues. However, the online services will not purchase the movies, enabling the filmmakers to retain their copyrights.
Sundance hopes that the online initiative will provide an audience for films that typically do not find conventional distribution. First to be distributed: “Connected: An Autoblogography about Love, Death & Technology” by Tiffany Shlain and “On the Ice” from Andrew Okpeaha MacLean.
Verizon began selling the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 this week, the first LTE-supported tablet available in the U.S.
A 16GB version of the Honeycomb 3.1 device is offered at $530, while a 32GB model is available for $630 (although InformationWeek was not impressed with the pricing of the data plans). Verizon will also offer the Wi-Fi-only model for $499.
Additionally, the wireless provider will begin selling an LTE-ready HP Pavilion Entertainment laptop and will upgrade its Motorola Xoom tablet to LTE in September. InformationWeek reports the new HP laptop “ships with Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit and it features an 11.6-inch, high-definition HP BrightView LED display at 1366 x 768 pixels. Under the hood, it is powered by a 1.6-GHz AMD dual-core processor, offers 2 GB of RAM, and 320 GB worth of storage with HP’s ProtectSmart hard drive protection.”
ETCentric recently reported that Verizon expanded its LTE 4G network to more than 100 markets last week. Verizon claims its customers can expect download speeds between 5 and 12 Mbps and upload speeds between 2 and 5 Mbps.
U.S. General Services Administration (that oversees the bulk of purchasing and acquisitions for the federal government) is the first federal agency to migrate its email systems completely into the cloud.
Unisys recently completed moving GSA’s 17,000 employee email accounts into the Google Apps for Government email client.
According to Digital Trends, “Unisys claims the move should save the GSA about 50 percent over the infrastructure, maintenance and personnel costs of an in-house email system. The change is part of a federal effort to save around $3 billion over the next five years by shutting down 40 percent of the federal government’s costly data centers.”
Nextgov.com reports an additional 15 agencies — including the USDA, NOAA and the Army — have plans to move into the cloud.
Facebook announced the launch of “Facebook for Business” this week.
The service does not introduce any features new to Facebook, but is reportedly making it simpler for organizations to set up on the social networking site.
“Facebook allows small businesses to create rich social experiences, build lasting relationships and amplify the most powerful type of marketing — word of mouth,” a Facebook spokesperson told GigaOm. “We created Facebook.com/business to make it even easier for people to reach these objectives and grow.”
Facebook provides business services including user profiles for organizations, advertisements, sponsored stories, and assistance with creating Facebook apps and using social plugins.
The timing is interesting, since Google+ has recently been shutting down company profiles for violating user policy.
Amazon announced this week that its revenue increased a staggering 51 percent to $9.9 billion in Q2, with significant help from the highly successful ad-supported Kindle (now the most popular version of the e-reader).
Amazon finance chief Tom Szkutak explains this marks the Seattle-based company’s best growth rate in 10 years.
However, the growth also comes at a cost; profit declined 8 percent as the world’s largest online retailer continued to invest in fulfillment centers and digital offerings. Additionally, operating expenses rose 54 percent.
Amazon also had 5,300 new hires in the quarter, giving the company a total of 43,200 employees, up from 28,300 a year ago.
Investors appear unruffled by Amazon’s infrastructure spending; stock rose 5.7 percent to $226.40 on Tuesday.
Brian Barrett of Gizmodo provides a compelling and timely opinion piece that addresses various issues related to the current and future cost structure of online media (“The Biggest Lie the Internet Ever Told: Free Everything, All the Time”).
Barrett’s post reminds us that the Internet is still in its infancy — and online media is still essentially in beta, and as it continues to grow we should accept that not all content can remain available for free.
We’ve seen an interesting collection of revenue and advertising models in recent years that were designed to keep up with online media distribution and related technological advances (all of which are really still in beta form) — as well as a steadily climbing level of consumer demand.
Barrett points out that in order to move forward we may need to recognize the need for paid subscriptions and get past the philosophy that everything on the Internet is meant to be free.
He cites recent examples of online media approaches that have drawn criticism (“each one a flaming arrow launched straight at the heart of free”), such as Hulu Plus, the New York Times paywall, the TIME magazine paywall, and Fox’s recent decision to delay new episodes from streaming.
Ustream launched its first iPad-optimized app this week. According to TechCrunch, the app “allows users to view live and recorded content streaming through the service — and to stream their own footage direct from their iPad 2.”
The company released its Android app on Honeycomb two weeks ago. There is also an iPhone version available.
The free Ustream app supports AirPlay, which means users can stream whatever they are watching on their iPad 2 to bigger screens.
“The AirPlay support is especially nice because while the video is projected onto your TV you can still use your iPad for chatting and social stream,” writes Gizmodo.
Ustream will also allow users to broadcast their own videos using either of the iPad 2’s cameras.
Exactly who owns a media company-branded social media account is coming into question as individuals change jobs between companies and take their followers with them.
Lost Remote provides the Twitter account @BBCLauraK as an example. Former BBC chief political correspondent Laura Kuenssberg recently took a job at rival ITV, and changed her account name to @ITVLauraK, effectively shifting 60,000 Twitter followers from BBC to ITV.
The account name change raises interesting issues. “If she built the account on the backs of BBC — under its brand — does she have the legal right to shift it to ITV?” asks Lost Remote. “Conversely, if she doesn’t convert the name, the account becomes useless unless the BBC can convert it to someone else. But are people following the person — or the content the person represents?”
Possible solutions may include creating Twitter accounts in a person’s name, without including the brand — or creating co-branded accounts for content verticals — or even creating two separate accounts. However, co-branded accounts may be problematic if people follow people first, and brands second.
We should expect this to be become a bigger issue as media companies continue their interaction with social networks. ETCentric staffer David Wertheimer asks, “Who owns your followers?”
Billboard reports that Spotify has already reached 70,000 paid U.S. subscribers, one week after the streaming music service’s invite-only launch.
It’s too early to tell what the initial success will mean in the long term since the service’s closest competitors have been on the market for years (Rhapsody and Napster, for example, have more than 10 times Spotify’s number of paid subscribers but took years to get there).
Spotify currently has an ad-supported free option, but also offers two paid tiers that start at $4.99.
Paid subscriptions provide ad-free service, unlimited play time, and mobile device access.
In a recent review, Digital Trends found the service “to be the most well-rounded service out of Pandora, Spotify, and Grooveshark.”
In related news, licensing firm BMI announced it has completed deals with Spotify and Turntable.fm to provide some 6.5 million songs to the online music services.
Netflix is reportedly negotiating for exclusive streaming rights to DreamWorks Animation films.
The deal would replace DreamWorks’ contract with HBO (which runs through 2014).
DreamWorks reportedly has permission to end its HBO contract early. If it does, it could provide content to Netflix by early 2013.
If the deal goes through, it would mark the first time a major studio has licensed content to subscription VOD at the same time (as opposed to after) its pay TV window.
In related news (see LA Times link), Netflix will not be including Facebook integration anytime soon in the U.S. (although it will be integrated in Canada and Latin America). This is based on the 1988 Video Privacy Protection Act that requires peoples’ video rental information be kept private. Netflix feels that the law is ambiguous as it relates to Netflix/Facebook, but they’re not taking any chances.
Facebook’s iPad app may be closer to launch than earlier reported, since a fully operational version was recently discovered “hidden” inside the current iPhone app.
The iPad app reportedly has a more modern look than the “tired old” iPhone version, resembling Twitter’s iPad app. The navigational features are said to be intuitively positioned whether the device is held vertically or horizontally.
According to Wired writer Charlie Sorrel: “Facebook has managed to fully port the signature confusion of its website to a tablet app, a not insignificant achievement.”
The iPad app has also been described as “spectacular.” For those who can’t wait for the official release, the CNN post includes a link for instructions to get it running from inside the iPhone app.
We’ve seen another wave of press reports the last few days suggesting 3D viewing causes discomfort and fatigue.
For those interested in a detailed study regarding the prolonged viewing of stereo imagery, ETCentric staffer David Wertheimer forwarded this fascinating report published in the Journal of Vision (“The zone of comfort: Predicting visual discomfort with stereo displays”).
The study offers findings on three recent experiments and the relevance of these findings for the viewing of mobile devices, desktop displays, television, and cinema.
David’s comments: “A link to Marty Banks’ story on 3D and vergence-accomodation conflict, which has people buzzing (with the wrong conclusions) on the Web. I wish more people read the studies through before causing hysteria!”
According to a new report from London-based Direct TV Research Ltd., worldwide revenues from video-on-demand movies and TV shows will top $5.7 billion in 2016.
These 2016 projections represent a 58 percent increase from 2010 global revenues of $3.6 billion.
Internet-based television revenue is expected to overtake that of digital terrestrial TV by 2012.
The U.S., Italy and China are projected to be the top three VOD markets.
Simon Murray, author of the report, points out there is minimal evidence free VOD offerings will drive transactions. “There is little evidence to suggest that these free services actually encourage subscribers to pay for on-demand titles,” Murray wrote. “In fact, it may be harder to convince households to pay for on-demand services if they have become accustomed to receiving free on-demand titles.”
Consumers are increasingly using iPads and other tablet devices for mobile purchases, according to a new report by Forrester Research released this week.
Tablets might even one day outpace smartphones and PCs in terms of e-commerce volume.
The devices already account for 20 percent of mobile sales, even though just 9 percent of online shoppers have tablets. Additionally, 60 percent of tablet owners say they have used the devices to shop.
Tablets typically offer richer catalog presentations than those available via smartphones, and applications often produce faster loading times than retailers’ websites.
“Everyone thinks that mobile phones and mobile commerce are the next big things, and I think what this data shows is it’s probably actually tablets,” explains Sucharita Mulpuru, a Forrester analyst. “We have always capped e-commerce at 10 to 15 percent of total retail sales, but this potentially has the capability of really expanding e-commerce much beyond that.”
Apple introduced its new MacBook Air last week (in 11.6 and 13.3-inch versions, starting at $999) and announced it would discontinue the iconic white MacBook. Gizmodo reports that critics across the board are enamored with the new ultra-thin device. This meta-review provides clips from six notable sources.
Laptop Mag (11-inch): “As an ultraportable, the Air is superior in almost every way.”
CNET (11-inch): “…if you’re looking for a small, fast MacBook and don’t mind paying a higher price for superior design and performance, the 2011 11-inch MacBook Air is flat-out the fastest ultraportable we’ve ever used.”
TIME (13-inch): “I keep trying to stumble across a task or two that will prove that an Air is just too wimpy for some folks, but I’ve failed so far.”
PC Mag (13-inch): “The Air 13-inch (Thunderbolt) is perfectly adept at running any video and photo editing software package, compiling a huge database, or watching a 1080p video clip.”
Engadget (13-inch): “Keys are more springy than before, more solid and responsive than the somewhat loose, flappy ones on the last generation… It continues to impress when it comes to contrast, brightness, and viewing angles… The 2011 MacBook Air addresses nearly every concern anyone could lob at its predecessor.”
TechCrunch (13-inch): “With just the right combination of portability and power, it is hands-down the best computer I’ve ever owned.”
